Ed: as vested interests either call for Brexiteers and indeed Kippers to join the Tories and as remainers call for a new, anti-Brexit ‘centrist Party’; as the Libdems are pondering to allow arch-remainer Gina Miller (yes, her!) to stand for Leader of the Libdems and as Labour is in deep internal turmoil about its anti-semitism and can thus not formulate a word about Brexit, and as ‘Leave means Leave’ has reconstituted itself as overarching movement for Brexit for the great and good amongst politicians, we publish a speech from one of the rare Brexit Lords – Lord Stoddart of Swindon, sent in by Stuart Gulleford on his behalf.

Lord Stoddart of Swindon is the former Labour MP for Swindon, former Labour Minister and former Chairman of the Campaign for an Independent Britain. He is now an independent Labour peer and a council member of the Freedom Association:

“I was never in favour of joining the EEC. My first speech against joining was made in Woolhampton, Berkshire, in 1962. I understood that the Treaty of Rome was not about trade but about ‘Ever Closer Union’, building a country called Europe. That’s why I voted against the European Communities Bill in 1972 and why I subsequently voted against every further treaty handing more and more powers to the EU in one or other house of Parliament. We have been lied to by Governments of both major parties, first about joining the EEC and later about all the subsequent treaties.

The real issue at stake is ‘Who governs Britain?’ Is it an elected Parliament sitting at Westminster, through tried and tested institutions built over centuries, or an unelected bureaucracy sitting in a foreign capital? I know the answer to that and so did 17,410,742 people who voted in the referendum on 23rd June 2016, when they voted, by a majority, to Leave. People were entitled to believe that that was it and that their Government would quickly implement their decision. However, it was not to be, and a horrified establishment has done its best to delay and sabotage the decision to leave and has set up an organisation largely supported by foreigners – Soros and others who do well out of the EU.

They have resuscitated Project Fear and have, by doing so, damaged our economy and undermined our negotiators’ efforts to get a good deal. They have also stood truth on its head and insulted Brexit supporters as stupid, nationalistic, racist and unpatriotic. Britain’s position has been damaged by the inordinate delay in negotiating a deal and by the attitude of supplication by the Government. The truth is that the United Kingdom holds all the best cards but seems loath to play them. For a start, we are a great country, with a long history of success at home and abroad. Without our resistance to motley dictators, Europe as it now exists would be quite different. The arguments about Brexit are mainly about trade, but the reality is that the prize of Brexit is self-government.

But what about trade? In 2017, the UK exported £274 billion to the EU and imported £341 billion from the EU: a deficit of £67 billion. Since 1973 our total trade deficit with the EU is £408 billion. We have a trading surplus with the rest of the world, so it is clear that the EU countries will be the losers if the EU maintains its hostile attitude and the UK will do well trading through WTO rules and making its own trade deals with other countries.

Then there is the matter of financial contributions. Since we joined the EEC/EU we have made net contributions of £187 billion to the EU coffers and these contributions are on a rising trend. The rebate is under pressure and, without this, future contributions could be over £15 billion a year net. So, in sheer money terms, the EU is a big loser and the UK a big winner from Brexit, but there would be other benefits too because we would not be bound by EU regulations, many of which are absurd and do not suit this country.

So my message is that, outside the sclerotic, bureaucratic, corporate European Union, Britain would thrive and prosper and, together with a revived Commonwealth, would be a great force for good in the world.

14 Comments

t g spokes
on August 30, 2018 at 11:07 pm

Our children, our young and foolish and inexperienced, need to understand that travel throughtout Europe (but excluding Russian Iron Curtain countries), was never ( from 45 to 75 ) a problem. As long as you had your GB plates,and a visa ( Obtained locally ) you were waved through, and happy to see you. I suspect that the EU itself has caused most of any friction. I except of course the behaviour of our drunken and defective holiday makers, who seem to increase every year.

Open borders.
For millenia the frontiers of the British Isles have been closed by politics and geography.
We have been in a state of quarantine.
Now a few short decades of “open borders” has brought biological disaster in the form of disease.
Elm.
One of the first was “Dutch elm disease” a fungus carried by a beetle that killed over a five million trees. Only a few isolate pockets of English elm remain in places like the Isle of Man. Since then we have had a succession of diseases arrive from the continent. More are on the way.
Oak.
There are two diseases of Oak trees.
“Sudden oak death” caused by ramorum blight. Also affects larch, beech, Sweet chestnut horse chestnut and rhododendron.
“Acute oak decline” A bacterial disease, still poorly understood but spreading rapidly.
Ash (Chalara) dieback.
Another fungal disease from Europe. Thought to have hybridised with local fungus so becoming even more deadly. Sale and movement of ash tress from Europe is banned. This is a notifiable disease such is the perceived danger.
Horse chestnut.
Now being ravaged by a processionary moth and a bark canker, both European imports.

Buxus (box) blight.
Again, no permanent cure. If you have a box hedge, it’s going to die.
Cypress (Leylandii. Lawsonia).
Once again a whole range of fungal diseases have appeared. Brown patches appear in the foliage which should be cut off and burned with snips sterilised between cuts. However, in the end it will die.

It seems that in a few years there will hardly be a tree left. Resistant varieties and cures are being sought but how much better to have prevented this mayhem in the first place?
Open borders…pah!

During the 2016 Brexit campaign, I wont say I was astonished, but I became aware there was a desperate ignorance among the general public (educated and not so educated) of the "Why" of the need for Brexit. Lord Stoddarts speech is timely but only scratches the surface of the necessity of a comprehensive story (narrative) being put together and used to “educate” the British public to enable them to stay faithful to the end to which we instructed the government on June 23rd 2016.

I am pleased this speech has been published, I also appreciate the publication in “Letters” of David Challices "points".

I hope there is someone beavering away, drawing all these "positives" together.

The 17.4 million have got to be able to understand and "know" they were not part of just a slim majority, DC speaks of the Bogus "Fear Campaign" Camoron and Osborne conducted, but nobody seems to have computed how many were induced against their will or better sense to thereby vote REMAIN, It wouldnt surprise me if it was as much as 20%
Lord Stoddart writes “We have been lied to by Governments of both major parties, first about joining the EEC and later about all the subsequent treaties.” To me that is , to say the least, putting it mildly. It does nothing to bring out the monstrous conspiracy perpetrated on the British people, starting with the Coudenhove Kalergi incidence and the Heath silence on the terms and the adherence to the 1995 Barcelona Declaration and the belittling of the Gross Immigration effect of 5.4 million people in 10 years who “contribute to the economy” (but how about the space they occupy)

Somebody and quick has to put this together as a readable story so that everybody in the land knows (and can have no further excuses for ignorance) – just as if you go to law you have to “make the case” so do you have to sell and resell a policy of revolution and independence. Without this aid, we will fail to unite and convince.
Nigel broke the mould and in the words of my daughter “he smashed the toys”, now it is up to us to reassemble and show the true path forward.

Yes. Number one must be the VAT Act 1973, and Number two must be the Retail Price Maintebnance Act 1964.

The VATax obviously has to go as its primarypurpose was to help finance the EU. It’s secondary purpose was Officialdom’s snooping into every factory, shop and business in Europe. Into every corner of every business to question everything. ( Worse than the inquisition ) regardless of it’s unnecessary costs and inconvenience.

The Retail Price Maintenance Act was an artificial invention, already tried unsuccessfully in other countries, forced into British law by Heath and publicised by Phillip Green ( That’s right )( Whose BIG idea was to cut prices ) who was forced to pass it before he was allowed to apply to join, at the beginning by De Gaulle. The purpose of this law was to destroy British manufacturing industry. A task it has performed brilliantly. The way it operated was to allow retailers to lower prices of higher quality product, which forced abandonment of quality and other attributes ultimately destroying brand importance and the Internet Retail Nightmare to do it’s damage. Pure political malice, foolishness and ignorance. ( The relevant select committee warned against it but Heath was blinded by terror of the state he had got the country into. )

@t g spokes. It was the ‘Resale’ Price Maintenance Act. It made Jack Cohen his Tesco fortune and heralded in the supermarkets and the end of the High Street. Presumably he and others in the nascent supermarket business were on good terms with the Tory party to pull this off. It moved the pricing power to the retailer from the manufacturer and as you say from quality to tat. There were all kinds of repercussions from this Act. It moved profits from small business nationwide to big business ad their shareholders. Complete rip off for most of small business and yet they were mostly Tory voters and presumably continued to support the party. Work that out if you can! When will small business learn that the Tory party work the interests of big business.

Yes VAT, a multi point tax, has to be replaced by Sales Tax, a single point tax which is used by most countries outside the EU. In Australia it is called GST (Goods & Services Tax) and is 10% across all States and Territories. In Canada it consists of GST and sometimes a PST (Provincial Sales Tax) combined rates vary from 5% to 15%. In Ontario for example the tax is 13%.

I hope that in the UKIP Manifesto we will have a commitment to abolish VAT and have a Sales Tax say at 15%.

I hate it,
I hated it when it came in.
I think I still hate it while we have got it.
I hated it particularly when as a small growing business we approached necessary registry.
I hated it even more and dreaded it after we were registered, particularly as we had already spent the money on necessaries to increase turnover and we seemed to have got on to a course of business inhibiting growth that we couldnt get off (many customers pre VAT registry we didnt have to charge it, subsequent to registry we had to charge it and many of them couldn`t recover it, which meant we often lost the customer).
As an EU construct I hate it and you say as a multi point tax we must get rid of it (which I suppose you mean expensive to collect) but I think I would need to see a detailed analysis of benefits and losses, both to individual classes of the public and to the treasury.
I would also like to know if its demise could contribute to increased overseas exports or cheapen imports.

First you don’t charge it on exports. But that’s just window dressing. Just imagine, every transaction, extra calculations, extra time, extra checking, Calculation on every petty cash receipt, uncertainty of every bit of paper , Miscalculations by the bucket load. An extra balance sheet to keep VAT off it so nobody knows it’s enormity. , You try to work out a spread sheet. and therefore, more misunderstanding. More working capital needed to pay before recovery, Made many firms believe in cretinous activities like just in time etc. It’s a well understood Civil Servant Big Brother Tax, a good little earner for Accountancy profession in its cosy quid pro quo with the Gov’t.

which probably drives more small firms into liquidation orwhatever they call it nowadays